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Gaming and Esports have been growing at a rapid pace with each passing year. With the advent of new technology and innovations in the industry, gaming titles nowadays have a realistic feel providing the player an immersive experience.
On the other hand, the competitive aspect of video games aka Esports has also been growing meteorically with gaming competitions and leagues with huge prize pools organized around the world.
However, with all this buzz surrounding the gaming industry, various concerns have also been raised regarding gaming addiction in minors. To counter this, various countries have put forth bespoke systems which allow for regulations in gaming for minors.
Tencent introduces facial recognition to keep track of minor gaming
In the latest news, the world's largest gaming company Tencent has introduced a facial recognition system that will help them detect minors and teenagers who spend long periods of time in-game post midnight.
The initiative was given the name Midnight Patrol with the intention of thwarting all tricks devised by kids to pose as adults between 10 PM and 8 AM.
Earlier in 2019, the Chinese game regulator had introduced several policies to control addiction and excessive spending by minors in video games. Not gaming after 10 pm and a limit of $60 a month being examples of some of these curbs.
Tencent also said that anyone who fails to comply with the facial recognition app will be kicked offline from the game.
According to a tweet by an expert in this matter, Daniel Ahmed, the Senior Analyst at Niko, Chinese law forbids minors from spending an excessive amount of time in video games and bars them from playing after 10 PM.
However, he also comments that many minors use their parent's accounts to bypass these rules.
Tencent will be introducing this feature for over 60 games including the popular Game for Peace (Chinese PUBG Mobile) and Honor of Kings. The company also plans to incorporate these features into more titles in the future.
Tencent started testing the facial recognition software back in 2018.
Over the past few decades, the gaming industry has grown exponentially. In spite of this, many could not afford gaming setups, as they are expensive.
The proliferation of cheap data and ever-evolving mobile technologies have led to a boom in mobile gaming in the last couple of years. Easy access has made kids more susceptible to gaming addiction.
Governments have banned many titles to curb gaming addiction, but users have found a way to get around it. Gaming has increasingly become a polarizing industry and restraints are being implemented to keep it from becoming taxing for players.
It would be intriguing to witness if the facial recognition system works or if players find some way to bypass the system.
